Medical linens, such as drapes and gowns, are intended to protect both the patients and medical personnel from microbial contamination. The patient is protected from germs in the atmosphere or on the medical personnel and the medical personnel are protected from the patients bodily fluids which make contain harmful infectious agents, such as the virus which causes AIDS. Some medical linens are reusable and constructed from sturdy fabrics such as woven cotton which can be washed and sterilized repeatedly. Other such linens are disposable, and are constructed from less expensive fabrics such as nonwoven materials. Suitable examples for each are well known in the art.
When constructing a medical gown to be worn by a medical professional during surgery or other medical procedures in which bodily fluids may be present, several methods are currently known to provide fluid imperviousness in the areas of the gown exposed to bodily fluids. If the gown is constructed of panels which are sewn together, as most such gowns are, those panels requiring repellency can be formed from a water repellent material such as a plastic film. Alternately, to improve comfort such panels may be provided with a laminated construction comprising a layer of a nonwoven fabric or other comfortable material and a second layer of repellent film. As is shown in the Lopez U.S. Pat. No. 5,444,871 issued Aug. 29, 1995, the King et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,504,977 issued Mar. 19, 1985 and the Rothrum U.S. Pat. No. 5,673,433 issued Oct. 7, 1997, each of which are incorporated herein by reference, films of repellent material may be applied to local regions such as the sleeves or chest of the medical gown.
Similarly, medical drapes that are used to cover a patient during a medical procedure generally require material having highly absorbent properties and frequently high liquid repellent properties. To increase comfort to the patient and decrease cost of the drape, such drapes are frequently constructed with such properties limited to specific regions of the drape. Heretofore, this has been accomplished with panels or laminations of absorbent and fluid repellent materials only at the specific areas requiring such absorbency and repellency.
For instance in a drape intended for a surgical procedure, the drape is draped over the patient and the procedure is typically performed through a fenestration through the drape. The drape is typically provided with some form of reinforcement at the fenestration for added physically integrally, and also with an area of increased absorbency. For instance, the drape may cover the entire patient but bodily fluids may only be present at a small location adjacent the fenestration. In such instance a panel of absorbent material may be laminated to the drape surrounding the fenestration to keep that area of the drape free from puddled liquids.
Where large quantities of liquid may be present, a fluid repellent lamination may be provided to direct the fluid away from the fenestration to a location where it can be captured and disposed of properly. This may be combined with the absorbent panel. The other presently known alternative to providing laminated construction to provide these regional performance characteristics is to construct the gown from panels attached together at their edges, with the separate panels having differing performance characteristics, such as high absorbency.
It can be cumbersome to construct a gown or drape with local areas of laminations. Likewise, it can be cumbersome to construct a gown or drape employing different materials for the different panels in a multi-panel construction. When employing different materials, to achieve highly localized performance characteristics, the design of the gown frequently requires additional panels or a more complicated construction to provide the fluid repellent materials in specific locations. When applying laminations, it can be difficult to accurately align the laminated material. The present invention overcomes these and other limitations in the prior art.